Nexus 7 LTE Now Available With AT&T SIM, $100 Credit for Signing Contract

Google added two new Nexus 7 LTE purchasing options to the Play store this morning, one of which includes an AT&T SIM and a deal that will land you a $100 bill credit for signing a 2-year service agreement. It certainly isn’t the 2GB of free data for a month that T-Mobile is offering without a service agreement, but it’s a deal none-the-less.

If carrier SIMs aren’t your cup of tea and you’d rather your new LTE-equipped tablet arrives by itself, they also are now listing the LTE model at the same $349 price without any sort of carrier add-ons or features.

Category

Tags

CollapseShowComments

JohnThackr

What is the advantage for getting this over getting the T-Mobile version with a free month, then going to an AT&T store and switching after the month is up? It looks like the $100 credit is good through the end of the year.

Blue Sun

Google: Just say no to supplying Nexus devices with Verizon LTE bands in the US. I’m sick of their shenanigans.

JohnThackr

Actually, I’d say offering the device and then causing Verizon to get deluged with complaints, showing them that there is a would-be market for unlocked devices on their network, is actually a good long term strategy.

addicuss

You have to understand verizon doesnt want that market. That market directly threatens their other market: contracted subsidized customers. They’ll do everything up to and including selling their mothers to stop LTE devices sold off contract this cheaply from working on verizon. especially as VoLTE deployment ramps up

hfoster52

Can you use a straight talk sim in it? Is that any cheaper than signing up for a data only plan?

Justin W

You should be able to use a StraightTalk sim in it since it runs on AT&T’s bands as long as you have the right APN’s set up.

Menger40

One of my co-workers just bought the WiFi-only model from Best Buy. It randomly rebooted three times during initial setup, and it crashes when you try to take a picture with the rear camera. He boxed it up and is taking it back tomorrow.

A quick google search revealed that lots of people are reporting annoying stability issues with the new Nexus 7. Hopefully Google can improve the situation with software updates, but right now it looks like you’d be rolling the dice if you bought one of these.

moelsen8

you guys should warn people of the drama unfolding regarding verizon and the lte version. apparently they won’t activate sims for it since it’s not in their system. you need to have one already to swap in.

VZ rep here. It has nothing to do with the company refusing to activate it as much as technical limitations. When activating any device, the system asks for an ESN and an ICCID. The problem is the Nexus 7 doesn’t have an ESN, it has an IMEI, and it’s not recognized in the system because IMEI’s correspond to incompatible GSM equipment. The Nexus 7 only has the ability to work with an LTE SIM card on the LTE radio, whereas every other VZW device has both a CDMA and an LTE radio.

I’ve been trying to find a workaround for a friend of mine to activate one on his account and have not found an easy way to do it. The best solution is for those that already have a Verizon tablet activated with a micro SIM because you can just move the SIM to the new device.

Edit: FCC block auction notwithstanding, it’s important to also remember that this is the first device to be sold outside of Verizon (to the best of my knowledge) that people are trying to activate.

michael arazan

I’ve been reading that Verizon can’t guarantee connectivity because it is only LTE, since Google can’t use and install the proprietary cdma for the tablet to fall back on. And because they can not offer full connectivity of the network of the device to its customers they can’t approve the device for their network. I read that somewhere from another vzw “rep” on the web last week.

The FCC states that if a customer brings a device to Verizon they can not turn away the device (as long as it works on the network) Verizon agreed to the terms because they knew that no other carrier, at the time, would have a device that would be comparable for Verizon’s network. I’m sure right now VZW Execs are sh$tting bricks about this behind closed doors, and will start doing everything they can to prohibit the use of this on their network.

Not to mention that manufacturers would never go against verizon releasing phones for their network because they need Verizon to sell those phones being it has 100 + million , 1/3, of Americans on their network and Verizon owns the cdma proprietary code on their network.

If Verizon can’t control the customers money coming solely to them, they will raise hell over it. Bet you right now their lawyers are working over time.

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

Mannnnn F all this… I’ll just get the WIFI version… Really thought about getting the LTE model but i’ll just buy an external battery pack for my HTC One and tether. I was juts worried about battery life when tethering, but that shouldn’t be a big deal.

JRomeo

yea, in a world of car chargers, battery packs, and wall outlet chargers, tethering to your tablet saves you A LOT of hassle, and you’ll avoid paying extra for the sim card inside the tablet. I never understood why people wanted an 4G data connected tablet so much, I always assumed there would be some demand, but never so much as is apparent nowadays. Also, I discovered that you if you tether from your cellphone, and keep your cellphone’s screen OFF, Tethering doesn’t even use that much battery as you would think it does.